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- Among the executive actions is the extension of the Education Department’s forbearance on student loan payments through Sept. 30.
- All federal student loan payments were suspended in March as part of the Cares Act.
- Biden will also extend bans on evictions and foreclosures for those affected by COVID-19.
The Biden administration will extend the nearly yearlong pause on student loan payments for eight more months in an effort to provide economic relief to the American people amid the worsening coronavirus pandemic.
President Biden is expected to sign more than a dozen executive actions Wednesday hours after being sworn in as the nation’s 46th president, reversing several of former President Trump’s signature policy initiatives and shifting the U.S. response to the coronavirus crisis.
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Among them is the extension of the Education Department’s forbearance on student loan payments through Sept. 30. The order means no federal student loan payments are owed, no interest will accrue and no student loans in default will be collected. The order, however, still excludes more than 7 million borrowers whose federal loans are held by private companies or universities.
All federal student loan payments were suspended in March as part of the CARES Act. Former President Trump extended the student loan relief twice. The moratorium was set to expire at the end of this month.
“In this moment of economic hardship, we want to reduce the burden of these financial trade-offs,” Brian Deese, the incoming director of the National Economic Council, told reporters Tuesday, according to The Washington Post.
Biden will also extend bans on evictions and foreclosures for those affected by COVID-19. The president will ask the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to delay the expiration of an order barring ladnlords from evicting some tenants for nonpayment of rent. The moratorium, which is set to expire at the end of this month, will be extended through March.
In addition, the president will ask the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture and Housing and Urban Development to extend foreclosure moratoriums for federally backed mortgages until March 31.
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